The Assistant Diaries: Before They Were Fashion Stars

This week, we'll be bringing you tales from fashion assistants, including their daily tasks, their special relationships with major designers, and even some anonymous horror stories. Why are we so interested in these junior staffers? Because they might become the Next Big Things. For proof, click through this slideshow to see the first jobs of fashion titans—and yes, fetching Starbucks was always involved.

Joe Zee

Joe Zee

It’s difficult to imagine fashion’s boldface names fetching coffee, but that’s exactly what many of them did in order to climb the industry’s steep ranks. ELLE’s own creative director, Joe Zee, began his career assisting two fashion greats: legendary editor Polly Mellen and beloved stylist Lori Goldstein.

Mellen helped Joe develop a sense of urgency, which is crucial in this fast-paced world. “During my first week working for her, she asked me to get something from the fashion closet. I started heading over, and suddenly she came up behind me and said, ‘Don’t walk, run!’ I realized that she meant it kind of literally, but mostly figuratively,” he says. “Get everything first: the next scoop, the next big idea.”

With Goldstein, “she always wanted the newest, most different thing,” he says. “Once, I shipped 98 trunks to Los Angeles for Lori for a cover shoot. When I got there, the shoot was canceled, but I didn’t even care because I was working for her!”

As for how Joe scored such illustrious gigs early on in his career? “I knew who I wanted to assist,” he says. “When I went to human resources, I said, ‘I want to work for Polly Mellen,’ not, ‘I want to work in the fashion department.’ Same thing with Lori. I went up to her at a Christmas party and explained what a huge fan I was of her work, and how much I wanted to be a part of it.”

Click through to see the other fashion greats who worked their way from the bottom up.